by Selena Black
“I had …, umm …, unprotected sex about a week before I got the injection,” Gloria admitted.
“You haven’t had a period since, I take it?”
“No,” Gloria replied.
“Then I guess we better check and I’ll do it a couple of ways,” Dr. Alexander told her. “The urine test will give an immediate indication. The blood test tends to more accurate, but it takes around a day to get the results.”
She got to her feet and walked to a closet near the door to get the equipment she needed. Gloria just sat and watched at first then moved across to the examination table when she was told to.
“Just roll up your sleeve for me,” Dr. Alexander said. “We’ll take the blood first.”
Gloria looked away and screwed up her face as she was stuck with the needle to draw blood. It was over in seconds and a small bandage placed on her arm. She then took the box that was held out to her.
“I hope you need to go,” Dr. Alexander said and pointed to the restroom in the corner of the room. “The instructions are on the box, so just go ahead with the test and come out when you’re finished.”
“Sure,” Gloria agreed.
She made her way to the small room and locked herself inside. The information was simple enough to understand, so she did the test quickly then straightened her clothes and let herself out of the bathroom to return to the seat at the desk. Dr. Alexander was already sitting down and Gloria handed over the pregnancy test equipment.
“It only takes a few minutes,” the doctor told her.
There was silence in the room as they waited and Gloria could see straight away from the expression on Dr. Alexander’s face that the result was positive when it showed.
“Shit,” she cursed without thinking then apologized.
“You should have arranged the contraceptive jab before making love,” Dr. Alexander said.
“Yeah,” Gloria agreed in a resigned voice. “That’s easier said than done because the sex wasn’t exactly planned.”
“Neither is this pregnancy by the way you just cursed,” the doctor went on. “Not that it’s really any of my business, but are you in a relationship?”
“It’s complicated,” Gloria answered.
“What does that mean for the pregnancy?” Dr. Alexander asked.
Gloria shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s a good question,” she replied, but said no more.
“OK,” Dr. Alexander went on. “Well, the blood test will confirm for sure if you are pregnant, but in all honesty the urine tests are rarely wrong.” She spun her chair around to the cabinet against the wall behind her and searched through it.
Gloria suspected the leaflets in the doctor’s hands were about pregnancy and immediately saw that she was right.
“The final decision about what you do is up to you and the father,” Dr. Alexander said. “All I can really do is give you the information about your options. These first few leaflets are about the changes you can expect to your body over the next few months.”
Gloria looked down at them as they were being slid across the desk to her. The titles of ‘Dealing with Pregnancy’, ‘Changes a Pregnant Woman will Experience’, and ‘Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy’ brought it home to her what she was facing and she let out a sigh.
“Considering your reaction to the news,” Dr. Alexander went on. “It may be worth you having a look through these as well.”
Gloria grimaced as she saw the titles of the literature now being passed to her. ‘Unplanned Pregnancy – Your Choices’ and ‘What is an Abortion?’ weren’t really something she wanted to contemplate. Just the thought of them was enough to send a cold shiver trickling down her spine and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“I don’t think …,” she started.
“Just take them,” Dr. Alexander insisted. “If this is unplanned then you need to talk over the options with your partner. That information might help.”
“I’m not even sure I can tell him,” Gloria replied.
“I don’t mean to pry, but why not?” Dr. Alexander asked.
“He’s a wealthy man in the middle of a messy and bitter divorce at the moment,” Gloria answered. “His wife is looking for any excuse to paint him in a bad light and I suspect the scandal of an unplanned pregnancy in a relationship he started before he even divorced her plays right in to her hands.”
“It’s the 21st century,” Dr. Alexander pointed out. “It’s not exactly a scandal to have a baby out of wedlock.”
“It’s not exactly something I want either,” Gloria countered. “I expected to be happily married and in love when I got pregnant. The man I’m with didn’t even want his wife to find out about his relationship with me. He’s hardly going to be ecstatic about the fact that I’m pregnant.”
“Well, all you can do is give him the news,” Dr. Alexander went on and nodded at the leaflets on the desk. “Then discuss your options for what you both want to do.”
Gloria glanced down and saw the abortion title staring up at her. It really wasn’t something she wanted to think about and she gathered up the leaflets to put them in her bag.
“Thanks for seeing me,” she said as she got to her feet.
“The blood test result should be with me tomorrow, so I’ll let you know what it is.”
“Sure,” Gloria replied.
There was no doubt in her mind that it would be positive and that she definitely was pregnant. She needed some peace and quiet to get her head around that and turned to walk towards the door.
“Gloria,” Dr. Alexander said.
She looked over her shoulder before turning slightly.
“If you need someone to talk to about this, just get in touch with me,” the doctor told her. “I’m always here if you need me.”
“Thanks,” Gloria replied and smiled before walking to the door to leave the examination room.
What she really needed was to be on her own and that was all she was thinking about when she left the building. She’d originally intended to go back to the store and open up for a couple of hours, but there was no way she could face it now so she walked to a nearby bus stop to catch a ride home. Her mood was somber as she stared out of the window and she couldn’t get her head around what she should do. She got her phone out of her pocket to bring Mark’s number up on the screen, but just stared at it and knew she wasn’t going to make the call. Telling him was something she would have to do although she needed to be sure of her own mind before she got around to doing it.
After putting her phone away, she brought out the leaflets although just the title of ‘What is an Abortion?’ was enough to make her return them to her bag straight away. She was sure that wasn’t something she could do and she pressed her forehead on the window and put her hand on her belly.
“Good going Gloria,” she berated herself. “You’re making a disaster of your life.”
She only pulled her head away from the window when the journey was coming to an end. The pleasant late afternoon sunshine did nothing to brighten her mood when she got off the bus to walk the rest of the distance to her apartment. Her mood darkened even more when she approached her door and saw who was waiting for her. It was almost a month since she threw Jack out of the apartment and she’d hoped that was the last she would see of him. It appeared he didn’t share that sentiment.
“What the hell do you want?” she complained as she got her keys out of her pocket.
“I was looking for you,” he replied. “When I got to the store it was closed, so I came here.” He held up his set of keys for the apartment. “It would appear that you changed your locks, so these don’t work anymore.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Gloria went on.
“You didn’t pack all my stuff when I left,” he told her.
She almost let out a laugh at his description of his departure, but held it in so as not to antagonize him. The memory of throwing his bag out the door then screaming at him to leave came to he
r and she was really in no mood to have him look around the apartment for his belongings.
“It took you four weeks to notice that, did it?” she said.
He shrugged his shoulders in an apparent show of nonchalance.
“I’ve been busy working,” he said.
The words came out before she could stop them.
“That makes a change. You’re usually busy making a fuck up of your life from what I remember.”
The flash of anger showed on Jack’s face, but his voice remained relatively calm.
“Look, I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to be. Can I just get the possessions that are mine and I’ll be on my way.”
Gloria was still in two minds as to whether she should let him in the apartment at all, but giving him his things seemed the quickest way of getting rid of him and avoiding another argument.
“OK,” she said as she unlocked the door and opened it.
Jack followed her inside and she saw he was still behind her when she walked in the kitchen.
“There’s nothing in here that’s yours,” she let out in an almost scathing tone.
“I know, I know,” he replied and a smirk played on his lips. “I thought you might make me one last coffee.”
“Yeah, well think again,” Gloria told him. “Anything of yours that’s still here will be in the bedroom. Just make sure you get everything you want and leave because I won’t be letting you in here again after this.”
“Well thank you for the warm welcome home,” he let out sarcastically.
Gloria simply aimed a tight smile at him and watched until he walked out of the kitchen and headed for the bedroom. There was nothing of any real importance to her in there and she was in no mood to be anywhere near him, so she left him to it. She put her bag down on the kitchen table and got her purse out of it to put in her pocket.
Moving to the fridge, she opened it to take out a bottle of water and drank half of it. Five minutes later she wished she hadn’t. Jack still wasn’t back and drinking the water made her want to go to the bathroom. She wanted to hold it in until he left, but in the end knew that she couldn’t. It meant leaving the kitchen and she went to the bedroom door first. She looked in to see her ex-boyfriend going through the hangers in the wardrobe.
“Are you nearly finished?” she asked.
“Just about,” he threw over his shoulder without bothering to turn and look.
Gloria shook her head as she made her way to the bathroom. She was in and out in less than a couple of minutes then went to the bedroom door. The room was empty and she was suddenly glad she kept her purse in her pocket. She wouldn’t have put it past Jack to go through her bag looking for money.
“Oh shit,” she let out when she remembered what else was in it.
It made her hurry to the kitchen, but as far as she could see her bag was still sitting in the same place on the table. Jack was sitting on a chair and she glared at him as she walked inside.
“I don’t remember telling you to make yourself comfort ….”
“Does he know?” Jack cut in.
Gloria frowned as she came to a stop and stared at him.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she snapped.
“Your rich boyfriend,” he went on. “Does he know?”
The penny dropped in Gloria’s mind and she moved to the table to grab her bag. There was no need to look inside, however, when Jack brought his hand up from under the table and threw the leaflets down. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead and she failed to retain her composure.
“How dare you got through ....”
It was as far as she got before Jack’s harsh laugh brought her words to an end. The chair legs scraped against the floor when he pushed it back to get to his feet.
“You really did open your legs wide for him,” he taunted her. “Mind you, I would never have pegged you as being stupid enough to get yourself in the family way. Then again, what better way is there to catch a rich man than letting him fuck you pregnant.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gloria retorted as she gathered up the leaflets to put them away.
“Don’t tell me,” Jack let out in dramatic fashion. “You got those brochures for a friend and they’re not for you.”
“Fuck off,” Gloria replied.
Jack’s laughter rang around the kitchen before it abruptly stopped. He moved to the seat he just got up from and dropped down on it.
“I want you to get out,” she told him.
“Not until you hear what I have to say,” he replied in an ominous tone. “Our original plan was to catch your boyfriend on camera getting amorous with a hooker. I’m sure he would have paid well to avoid a sordid scandal like that seeing the light of day, but you went and screwed that up for us, didn’t you.”
Gloria said nothing as she glared across the table.
“Well, you sure aren’t going to mess things up now,” Jack went on. “I’d bet good money that the wife Mark Godfrey is divorcing would find the news that he is in a relationship that’s going to make him a daddy very interesting.”
“You’re talking bullshit,” Gloria said, but could see straight away that Jack didn’t believe her. “I’m not ….”
“Don’t even bother trying to deny it,” he cut in to stop her words and let out another harsh laugh. “It’s not like you’ll be able to hide it in a couple of months anyway. The sums of money reputedly involved in this divorce are certain to make it newsworthy and I can just see the pictures of you on the front pages. The papers do like a bit of scandal and it won’t be fun for you to be portrayed as the other woman in the divorce, but I’m sure his bitter and unhappy wife will go out of her way to make sure that happens. The stress of it won’t be good for a pregnancy and a caring man like Mark Godfrey would surely want to avoid that for his woman and child.”
Gloria closed her eyes and let out a sigh. It was tantamount to showing Jack that what he was saying was right. A long and difficult day was coming to a disastrous end and the feeling of resignation swept over her.
“What do you want Jack?’ she asked in a quiet voice even though she knew the answer to the question already.
“I want the wealthy Mr. Godfrey to loosen his purse strings and send some of his vast fortune in my direction,” he replied.
“Never going to happen,” Gloria said in a feigned show of defiance that she wasn’t really feeling.
She remembered the discussion with Mark about how he didn’t want Karen to find out about their relationship. The threat of that now happening was real and the pregnancy made it all the worse.
“That’s not your decision to make,” Jack told her. “I think you better tell your lover what’s going on and see what he says about it.”
“I’m not going ….”
“Two days,” Jack barked to cut off her words. “I’m out of town for the next two days, but I better get an offer I can’t refuse when I return.”
Gloria didn’t know what to say as she watched him saunter over to the kitchen door then glance over his shoulder.
“Enjoy the rest of your evening and I’ll see you in two days,” he let out and the sound of his loud laughter filled the apartment until the crash of the front door showed he was gone.
She moved to the table to drop down on a seat and her hands trembled as she put her head in them. Things were going badly wrong and a simple mistake on her part now left Mark open to blackmail. She’d wanted time to think about the pregnancy before she said anything to him about it. That option was now gone and there was no choice but to own up to what was going on.
A tear slid from the corner of her eye to run down her cheek, but she wiped it away when she got to her feet, picked up her bag and went to get her coat. She was ending the day the way her afternoon started by making a trip she didn’t really want to, but again she knew there was no choice.
Chapter 10
“I’m sorry, he hasn’t arrived home yet,” the concierge told h
er.
“Do you know when …?” Gloria started to ask then stopped when she saw the expression on the man’s face.
“He doesn’t leave a list of his movements for the day here,” he said.
She let out a sigh and wished she’d phoned before she came to Mark’s apartment. She got her phone out to bring his number up on the screen, but guessed he was still at work and didn’t want to disturb him. Well, that was the excuse she used not to make the call.
“Is it OK if I wait?” she asked.